I find that if you are looking at anything under an inch in dia, then
pin gages are usually the easiest and cheapest route. They are available
in sizes from .004 to 1.0000 and in .0001 increments. The Travers
catalog gives prices at $8 to $15.50 each. Thats for the high tolerance
ones, the regular series are half the price.
A pin gage set comes in really handy around a shop. We used to fight
over them in the last shop I was at until I ordered another couple of
sets :-)

Backlash wrote:

I found making plug gauges of smaller diameters way too much work, so I
started making the handle out of 12L14 knurled to suit, drilled holes into
each end, then crossdrilled and tapped for setscrews to hold appropriate
flatted pieces of either drill blank, or reamer blank. One of them is
supplied with plus tolerances, and the other is supplied with minus
tolerances. By choosing what I need, along with metric sizes available, I
have been able to all but eliminate scratch making most of the gauges we
use. Depths for hole testing can be established by grinding a V ring around
the blanks at the proper depth on the "go" end. It's heartbreaking to spend
a lot of time on a scratch built gauge, then have someone drop it onto a
concrete floor.

RJ


--
James P Crombie
Slemon Park, PEI
Canada
Machinist - 3D Cad Design - Amateur Astronomer

http://www.jamescrombie.com